Marks
by DramaLexy
Summary: There are many different ways to mark a person. Some we hide away, and some we proudly display. Sequel to "Harm" (post-finale fic)
1. Chapter 1

**TITLE: Marks**

**SUMMARY: There are many different ways to mark a person. Some we hide away, and some we proudly display. ****Sequel to "Harm" (post-finale fic). **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own, you don't sue.**

**A/N: I'm back! If you haven't read "Harm," this story can stand on its own even though it's a sequel. The main things you need to know are that Callie's back home and trying to deal with guilt issues (and how she hurts herself as a result). If you have read "Harm," this follows from the first epilogue, not the Brallie alternate.**

* * *

After Callie's cross-country misadventure, everyone had missed half a week of school. Now that she was back, the family needed to try to get back to normal. Stef and Lena declared that everyone was returning to school on Thursday.

The house was a bit of a three-ring circus that morning; Mariana and Jesus got in a fight over who got the bathroom first, and Jude couldn't find his math homework. Brandon ended up being last for the shower since he got distracted practicing piano, and there was barely any hot water left. The moms were trying to get everyone's schedules straight while also getting themselves ready to go back to work.

"I found it!" Jude exclaimed as he came into the kitchen, waving a couple sheets of paper.

"Good," Stef replied. "Come on and eat." Callie had been toasting English muffins for everyone; she put one on a plate for her brother as he approached.

"Thanks," he told her as he also grabbed a hard boiled egg from a plate on the counter before he went to sit down.

"Can I get a muffin, too?" Lena asked her foster daughter as she came over.

"Sure."

"I wanted to let you know that I'm going to talk to Bill today," Lena softly told the teen, which made her heart speed up by a few beats.

"Do you think he knows anything?" Callie asked. She understood that the moms had taken a huge risk - one that she'd never expected - by not reporting her missing to her social worker. Nothing good would come from him finding out the truth. Callie was terrified that she'd actually screwed things up for her brother by attempting to make sure she couldn't screw things up for him.

"It'll be fine," Lena tried to reassure her.

"We don't know that," she protested. "What if he got some record about the flight back from St. Louis?" It had dawned on her the previous day that using the airlines left a paper trail proving she'd run away.

"Stef and I talked about that. If he does ask, we'll just say that we knew you were on a little trip with a friend, but you got sick and we made sure you got home okay."

"You let me go away during school?" she pointed out.

"You've gotta trust us, Callie," Lena told her. "We'll work it out. We are not going to let anyone take you or Jude out of this house if you don't want to go, okay?"

Callie slowly nodded. "I'm still working on that trust thing," she admitted.

Lena smiled a little. "I know. Rome wasn't built in a day. But try not to worry, okay?"

"Yeah."

Brandon came into the kitchen, his hair still wet from the shower. "Morning," he told the moms and his younger siblings.

"Morning, B," Stef replied before turning back to her project of updating the family calendar. "Jesus, you've got volleyball after school, right?"

He shook his head. "Cancelled this week."

"Right, I forgot." She crossed it out. "I've gotta work late tonight since I'm taking Grandma to the airport this morning; you guys all need to get homework done on your own."

"Tell Grandma we said bye again," Mariana requested. All of the kids had gotten to say goodbye to Sharon in person the previous night, but after everything they'd been through together over the past few days, they were really going to miss her.

"I will, love," Stef promised.

"I can pick up dinner on my way home after the board meeting," Lena told them. "Pizza or Chinese?" She got back a jumble of responses for both options. "Okay, Mariana, you can be the tie-breaker this time - what do you want?" They tried to rotate through which kid got to pick when they couldn't all agree on something.

"Chinese," she decided.

Lena nodded. "Done. I've gotta get over to the school; have a good day, everybody!" She kissed Stef and headed out the door.

"Oh, Callie," Stef said as she looked over the calendar again, "You can walk Jude home after his tutoring this afternoon, right?"

She shrugged. "Sure."

"I'll wait with you," Brandon offered. "We can go to the music room."

Callie glanced over at him for a moment, somewhat unsure of where they stood now that she'd chosen to be adopted and forfeit any chance at a romantic relationship. But Brandon just offered her a smile; he was trying to be the good big brother. "Okay," she agreed.

* * *

Once the kids had finished eating, they grabbed their backpacks and lunches and started walking to school. Mariana and Jesus were apparently still mad at each other from their fight that had started over the bathroom; Jesus immediately grabbed Brandon for a conversation so he wouldn't have to talk to his twin. Jude was lost in his own world, successfully managing to play his video game and walk at the same time. Callie just had to make sure that he didn't walk straight into the street at the crosswalks.

"I don't know how he does it," she commented to Mariana as they walked. "I guess that's why the moms always want someone to walk him home - so he doesn't step in front of a car."

Mariana giggled. "Probably. Boys wouldn't survive if there weren't girls around. Speaking of boys..."

"Uh-oh."

"What?"

Callie sighed. "I know I'm going to regret this, but… go ahead."

Mariana grinned. "While you were gone, what happened with you and Wyatt?"

Callie's eyebrows furrowed. "Nothing."

"Really?"

"We were just driving."

Mariana looked disappointed. "Okay… What's going to happen now?"

"Now he's in Indiana."

"I know, but… are you still together?"

"We weren't really ever together in the first place."

"So I'm not the only single one anymore?"

Callie shrugged. "Guess not."

When they got to Anchor Beach, the siblings all split up to go to their respective classes. Callie had English first period; when she came in Timothy's classroom, Talya was sitting in the chair behind hers.

"Hey," the redhead told Callie. "Welcome back. Brandon said all you guys got sick with some bug?"

Callie knew that was the 'official' story of why all of the kids and Lena had been out of school for the past few days. "Yeah. Was a 72-hour thing."

"That must have sucked."

"Yep."

"You look totally back to normal now. Weird that nobody else from the wedding got sick, huh?"

Callie forced a smile. She knew the other girl probably didn't buy the lie, but there was a lot riding on keeping her road trip a secret. "Yeah. Just consider yourself lucky, I guess."

* * *

**TBC...**

**A/N 2: Just so you all know, I'm not going to deal with the Lexi storyline in this fic, mostly because I'm not that invested in the character. Fill in the blank for yourself; either she stays in South America and Jesus has to get over it, or they never leave in the first place, or whatever other option you prefer.**


	2. Chapter 2

At lunchtime, Callie joined Brandon and Jesus at their table. "You didn't tell Talya anything, did you?" she asked Brandon.

"Huh?"

"About where I was?"

"Oh. No. Why?"

"I don't think she believes the 'out sick' story."

Brandon shrugged. "It'll be fine."

"Is she still crazy?" Jesus asked his brother. "I saw that video; she was WASTED."

Brandon glared. "She's just... had a lot of stuff to deal with, okay?"

"Like the rest of us haven't?" Jesus pointed out.

Brandon was about to say something else, but they heard an announcement over the PA system. "Jude and Callie Jacobs, please report to the front office. Jude Jacobs and Callie Jacobs, please come to the front office."

"Now you're in trouble," Jesus teased his foster sister. Brandon swatted him on the back of the head.

"Why are you so annoying today? Lena probably just wants to talk to them about something."

But that didn't help Callie's nervousness; she was the only one of the kids that knew Lena was calling Bill that day. What if their social worker had vetoed the moms' adoption plan? What if he was pulling both of them out of the Foster house? Or, even worse, sending her back to juvie which would leave her brother all alone?

Jude was already sitting in Lena's office when Callie got there. "Hey, sweetie," Lena told her. "Can you close the door?"

"Sure," Callie replied as she complied and then took the chair next to Jude.

"Sorry if I worried either of you with the call on the PA. I know I could have waited to talk to you until we got home, but I was excited. I called Bill this morning about starting the process for the adoption. It's going to take a couple of months, but... so far, everything's a go."

Jude's eyes lit up. "Really?!"

Lena was grinning ear to ear. "Really, bud. Are you happy?"

"Yes!"

Callie was frozen in her chair in disbelief. Had they really just gotten away with this? "Did Bill say anything else?" she wondered.

"He wanted me to pass on his congratulations to you two."

"But that's it?" Callie pressed.

Lena nodded. "That was it. I told you that everything would be fine." Callie sighed, finally starting to relax a little.

"Do we get to change our names to Foster?" Jude asked Lena.

"Well, that's up to you," she replied. "Stef and I would love it if you wanted to - especially now that I'm finally a Foster, too. But we know that your name is a connection to your biological mom and dad. You need to think about whether you want to lose that or not."

"Did Mariana and Jesus get to choose, too?" Jude wondered.

"Well, they were a bit younger than you are, so we helped then decide. I think both of them had a lot of anger at the time toward their mother and didn't want the reminder."

"The name Jacobs is our tie to our dad, not our mom," Callie pointed out. "We don't need to be tied to him anymore." Jude frowned slightly at that, but he didn't comment.

"That is definitely not something that has to get decided today," Lena told them as she saw the tension. "We can all talk more about it as we go through the adoption process. I know it's lunchtime for both of you, and I don't want to keep you from having a chance to eat. I just wanted to let you both know that the talk with Bill went fine and everything's in work, okay?"

Callie knew that reassurance was more for her sake than her brother's. "Thank you," she told Lena.

* * *

After the final bell, Callie headed up to meet Brandon in the music room. He was already there, practicing one of his songs for his next lesson.

"Where's Ms. Harding?" she asked as she put down her bag and got a guitar from the corner.

"Staff meeting."

"Oh."

They had a new song that they were working on, something that Callie had heard on Pandora and fallen in love with.

_if you knew that you would be alone, knowing right and being wrong_  
_would you change? would you change?_  
_if you knew that you would find a truth that brings a pain that can't be soothed_  
_would you change? would you change?_

_how bad, how good does it need to get?_  
_how many losses, how much regret?_  
_what chain reaction, what cause and effect_  
_makes you turn around, makes you try to explain?_  
_makes you forgive and forget_  
_makes you change..._

The melody was simple and perfect for their two instruments. They went through it a few times, making changes and corrections. The give-and-take of the music was comforting, a common ground that couldn't easily be put into words. Callie was glad to see that, even after everything, they hadn't lost that connection.

She grinned as she played the final note. "I hardly screwed up at all that time."

Brandon returned her smile. "Yeah, you're definitely getting better." He'd enjoyed re-teaching her the basics of playing the guitar. Maybe one day he would become a music teacher; that would make Lena proud.

Callie got up from her seat and stared out the window for a long moment. "I know I was only gone a couple days, but... I missed the ocean."

"Mmmh. I guess we take it for granted, always having it right there."

"I couldn't imagine actually living in Indiana or somewhere. I need a beach."

Brandon got up and joined her at the window. "Well, luckily, you're not in Indiana or somewhere. You're here, where you belong."

Callie slowly nodded. "It's been a long time since I belonged anywhere."

"Are you still worried about Bill?" After leaving Lena's office at lunch, she'd told Brandon and Jesus about the conversation.

"Yeah. I guess I won't really stop worrying until the ink's dry on the adoption papers. Or at least Jude's. I don't care what happens to me as long as he gets to stay."

"You've gotta stop thinking like that," Brandon protested. "We all care what happens to you, too. I know it's hard for you to believe that things will work out, but that's okay. Everyone else can believe enough to cover you, too."

She smiled slightly. "Thanks." The only thing more powerful than the high she got from knowing she finally had a great family was the fear of losing them.

They both turned around as they heard the classroom door opening. Their music teacher came in and seemed surprised to see the pair. "Oh, you're still here?" she asked.

"Sorry," Brandon told her. "We're waiting for our little brother." Callie looked at him in surprise. "We can go down to the library if you need to lock the room."

Ms. Harding shook her head. "No, it's fine, you can stay. I think I can trust you two in here. Just make sure the door shuts behind you; I'll lock it now." She got her things together and left.

"What is it?" Brandon asked when he saw the expression on Callie's face.

"You said 'our'."

"Huh?"

"You told her that Jude is OUR brother."

He smiled. "Huh, I didn't think about it. But he is, isn't he?"

Callie returned his grin. "Yeah."

* * *

They played a couple more songs, then put everything away and headed for the primary school. "Jude's been doing better in math, hasn't he?" Brandon asked as they walked through the hallways.

"Yeah, he's been doing better in everything. I think tutoring and Lena working with him has really helped."

Brandon smiled. "She'd help me with my homework when I was little. I liked it better than when my mom would do it. Lena's got endless patience."

Jude was standing out front of the school with Connor when Callie and Brandon walked up. "Hey, how was your day?" she asked her little brother.

"Good."

Connor looked up at the sound of a car horn. "That's my mom," he told Jude. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, bye."

"How was tutoring?" Brandon asked Jude as they started walking.

"Fine. I got a C+ on my math test last week."

"Good job!" Callie exclaimed.

"The moms will be really happy to see that," Brandon added. "I bet they'll put it on the fridge."

Jude shook his head. "It's not that good," he protested. The only times he'd seen things from his foster siblings get posted on the fridge was when they'd gotten A's or A+'s.

"For you, it is that good," Callie assured him. "You've come a long way, buddy." He'd barely been getting D's when he started at Anchor Beach. "If Stef and Lena don't hang it up, I will," she declared. Brandon laughed.

Jude eyed the two of them as they all continued down the sidewalk. Callie had talked to her little brother the previous night and told him that nothing was going to happen with her and Brandon. He wasn't sure if he believed it yet, though. She'd also promised from the start that nothing would happen, and that had already been broken. But Jude wasn't willing to say anything to her, for fear of losing her again. The Fosters were a great family, but nowhere would be home without Callie.

"Do you think we could read together tonight?" he asked his big sister. "I've got a new book for English."

Callie smiled. She hadn't been helping Jude with his homework as much since Lena had started working with him. She'd missed the time together. "Sure, bud. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Jude smiled as he nodded. As long as they were together, things would work out okay.

* * *

**TBC...**

**Song Credit: "Change" by Tracy Chapman**


	3. Chapter 3

Whenever she ended up having enough time, Callie liked taking showers at night and skipping the crazy bathroom fights in the mornings. That night, once she'd finished her own homework and read two chapters of Jude's book with him, she got her few minutes of peace. As she stood in the mirror after towel-drying her hair and putting on pajamas, she realized that there was a line of red on the right side of her thin blue tank top; one of her cuts had started bleeding again.

Stef and Lena were in their room, working on the seemingly never-ending stream of laundry that came from having 5 kids. Callie quietly knocked on the open doorframe. "Hey, love. What's up?" Stef asked.

"Um, I think I need another bandage."

Lena noticed the blood on her shirt. "Yeah, I'd say so," she agreed. Stef went to grab the first aid kit from the bathroom. Lena shut the bedroom door so they had some privacy.

"I think we've got waterproof band-aids," Stef told Callie as she looked for the box, "So you shouldn't have to take those off to shower."

"Thanks. I thought I could take care of it myself, but it's kinda awkward." The cut was the one she'd given herself accidentally; it was rougher and wasn't in her usual location.

"It's no problem." As Stef put some antiseptic on her, she tried to remember what Callie's wounds had looked like the previous morning. She was pretty sure this wasn't a new cut; it seemed unlikely that Callie would come to them for help with bandages if she was secretly still hurting herself.

Lena sat on the bed beside them. "You didn't do all of these, did you?" she softly asked their foster daughter, indicating one of the other scars on her body.

Callie looked to see which one she was pointing to, a mark on her right shoulder blade. "No, that was Phil, my last foster father."

"What happened? If you don't mind talking about it," Lena amended.

"He hit me with a stick. I probably wouldn't have the scar if it hadn't snapped in half and cut me."

Stef looked up at her in shock. "Why would he do that?" Even after everything she'd seen fostering and on the job, she'd never been able to understand how anybody could even think of doing things like that to a child.

"I don't remember. Jude made a mess in the kitchen or something. There was always an excuse. As long as he was hitting me instead of Jude, I didn't care."

"Nobody has any right to hurt you," Lena told her.

Callie shrugged. "He wasn't the first one. Or the last. This was from juvie," she pointed to a scar on her left side. "That's the only time anyone's ever been unhappy that I was leaving. The one on my leg is from a girl at our first group home."

"What else?" Stef softly asked, hoping that sharing the trauma would help her.

Callie went through her litany of injuries, a list that she'd never talked about with anyone else before. No one else, besides Jude, had ever cared. "I can't see the most important one," she told the moms.

"Why not?" Lena wondered. Callie reached up and undid the ponytail she'd been wearing. Once she'd parted her hair the right way, a scar on the right side of her head became visible.

"That came from the car window, in the accident where my mom died. Jude's got a couple little scars, too. We were asleep on the back seat…" She took a deep breath before continuing. Just like the finer details of what had happened with Liam, this was a part of her life that she didn't usually share with anyone. "We woke up to a nightmare. Somehow we just got a few cuts and bruises while our mom and two other people died a few feet away. I can still hear how Jude cried... The nurses and paramedics all said that we were lucky. Like being there to watch your life fall apart was a good thing... There were a lot of times that I wished our dad had killed us, too," she softly admitted.

Stef and Lena both wrapped their arms around her. They'd gotten the general details about the accident from Callie and Jude's CPS files, but neither of their foster children had ever talked about it before. "We are very glad that you survived," Lena told her, "Although we wish life afterward hadn't been so hard for you."

Callie sighed and wiped her eyes. "I wish we'd come here sooner. I wish we'd lived here all along."

"We do, too, honey," Lena promised her.

"I don't have much time left," Callie continued. "I'll be 18 in a year and a half. I used to pray so hard for that day to come. I could adopt Jude, then, and make sure he was safe and out of the system. But now… now it seems so short."

"When you turn 18, you'll be a legal adult," Stef told her, "But you will always be one of our babies. Nobody's going to be forcing you out the door, love. If you want to go to college locally and live at home, that's fine. We will be very happy for however much time we have with you in the house."

Callie looked up at them. "Do you really see me going to college?" she wondered. It had never been in her plans. Besides not having any money to pay for it, she'd always known that she would need to start working as soon as possible in order to support Jude.

Lena hugged her. "Why not? If that's what you want."

"I've never really thought about it…" Suddenly, her old life plan was in the trash, and a whole new world of options had opened up. "I guess things are different now, aren't they?" she realized.

The moms smiled. "Yes, they are."

* * *

Getting ready for school on Friday was slightly less chaotic than Thursday. They were starting to get their routine back. Lena didn't have an early meeting that morning, so she took the SUV and drove the kids to school.

"Meet me back here at 4 if you want a ride instead of walking," she told them as they got out of the car. "And have a good day!"

Callie was still thinking about the conversation she'd had with the moms the previous night. "Where are you going to go to college?" she asked Brandon as they walked toward the high school half of the building.

"Um… I don't know. I want to go to a music program, but Lena's always said I should look at regular schools, too. Just to make sure I have options in life. Why?"

She shrugged. "I've never thought about it. But I guess I'm starting to now." Thinking about college made her feel stunningly normal.

"Do you know what you want to study?"

"Not really."

Brandon smiled. "Probably want to think about that first. Then you can figure out where to go."

As they headed for their lockers, Callie got a strange feeling that people were staring at her. A couple kids turned away, giggling, when she looked in their direction. "What's going on?" she asked Brandon.

He shook his head. "I don't know. Probably just something stupid. I've got to get up to the music room; I'll see you in Algebra?" They had their second period of the day together.

She nodded. "Yeah, see you later."

* * *

Mariana and Jesus also noticed that there was something strange going on as they went to their first-period history class. People kept looking at something on their phones and sharing it with other friends. Whatever it was, everyone thought it was highly amusing.

By the time the class was over, Jesus was beyond curious. "What is that?" he asked one of the other boys as he tried to look over his shoulder at his phone.

The kid smirked and just handed him the device. There was a picture from Instagram on the screen, and Jesus' jaw dropped when he saw what the photo was of. "Holy crap," he muttered.

"Hey, let me see it," Mariana told him. Jesus tried not to let her, but wasn't successful. She was similarly stunned. "Oh, my God... This isn't good."

"Nope."

* * *

As Callie arrived in Algebra, her morning hadn't gotten any less weird. In her first period, several of the other kids had been giving her weird looks or were seemingly laughing at her. She was very on-edge as she slid into her seat next to Brandon.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"No."

They turned around when they heard a couple kids laughing again. The boys were staring at something on a phone screen. "What is so funny?" Brandon irritatedly asked.

Their teacher wasn't there yet, so one boy headed for the projector. "Time for another show," he announced as he disconnected the computer and plugged in his phone instead.

When the picture appeared on the screen, Callie's heart stopped. It was of her, dressed in nothing more than a tank top and underwear and lying back on her bed at the Olmsteads'. She'd almost forgotten about that photo. She'd barely been fourteen at the time, and hadn't had any idea what she was doing. Now, she could recognize that she'd looked like a total slut.

Brandon was paralysed in shock for a minute. The message displayed at the bottom, next to the poster's name (Liam Olmstead) was the worst part. His blood started boiling as he read it: 'SCREW YOU, LITTLE WHORE. OH, WAIT, I ALREADY DID.'

The teacher came in the room and stared at the screen. "What the hell is this?" he asked, horrified. The kid immediately unplugged his phone, but it was too late. There was no way to undo what had just happened. Brandon looked up as Callie bolted from the room, leaving her books and backpack behind. He quickly got up, ignoring that their teacher was calling their names, and went after her. He didn't mind that he had to shove one of his moronic classmates out of his way in the process.

"Callie!" he yelled down the hallway, but she was running away as fast as she could. "Callie, stop!" He started to follow, but she quickly disappeared outside. By the time he got out the door, Brandon couldn't see her anywhere.

As he turned to go back into the school, he was surprised to see that Talya had followed him. "Is she okay?" the redhead worriedly asked her boyfriend.

Brandon shook his head, his heart racing from more than just running through the school. "No, probably not."

* * *

**TBC...**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: A few hours after posting the previous chapter, I made some edits to the last scene based on feedback I got. Nothing major that changes the storyline, but if you read it early and now notice it looks different... that's why. Thanks again to sbz; constructive criticism is how writers get better.**

* * *

Lena looked up from her laptop at the sound of a knock on her office door. "Come in," she called. She was surprised to see that her visitor was Brandon. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked. He looked absolutely panicked.

"Callie left school," he told her. "I'm really scared for her."

"What? What happened?" Lena wondered as she stood.

"There were these jackasses in class - "

"Brandon!" she started to admonish him for his language.

"Trust me, the name fits. They had a picture of Callie that was posted online. I think people around the school have been sending it to each other. I hadn't seen it until now, but I knew something was going on. They put the photo on the projector in class and she ran out."

"What's the picture?" Lena was almost afraid to ask.

Brandon sighed. He'd gotten Talya to send him the link so that he could show his stepmother. He hated the idea of having that garbage on his phone, but the moms needed to know what had happened. "It's bad," he warned her as he accessed the link and handed her his phone. "Liam posted it."

Lena put a hand over her mouth, totally bewildered. Seeing the provocative picture of her foster daughter was hard enough, but the message below it was even worse. "Oh, God," she whispered. She didn't know how anyone could possibly be that cruel.

"Callie was really upset," Brandon continued explaining. "I tried to run after her, but she left. I'm scared of what she's going to do."

"Okay. You need to go back to class. I'm going to call your mom and we will look for her, okay?"

"I want to help," he protested.

"I know you do, but I don't want to be worrying about where you are, too. Please go back to class; we'll find her, I promise." Brandon finally nodded and left.

Lena grabbed her cell phone and started dialing Stef's number while she packed up her things. "Hey, my love," Stef answered. "What's up?"

"Callie ran off."

"What?"

"Brandon just came in here. It looks like Liam posted an extremely inappropriate picture of her online and it's going around the school. When she found out, she ran out."

Stef sighed. "Oh, God." As bad as she felt for her foster daughter, she wasn't mentally prepared to go through having her run away all over again. "Did she have her phone?"

"I don't know. Brandon was really worried about what she might do to herself, and so am I."

"Yeah, we need to find her."

"Are you still at home?" After all the drama with Callie at the beginning of the week, Stef had decided to delay her post-shooting return to work.

"Yeah, I am."

"Okay. I'm hoping that maybe she'll just go to the house, but I'm leaving now and we'll figure out where else to look."

"See you soon," Stef told her. She sighed as she hung up, and banged her fist against kitchen table in frustration. How much more damage was that little prick going to do to their soon-to-be daughter?

On the off-chance that Callie had taken her phone with her, Stef decided to check her tracking app. The marker showed that she wasn't at the school or at home, but was a few blocks away from the house at the beach.

When Stef dialed her number, the call connected, but no one said anything on the other side. "Callie? Callie, are you there?"

"Stef?" she heard the teen brokenly sob.

Relief flooded through her body. "Yeah, baby, I'm here."

"I'm sorry!"

"Shh, it's okay. Stay where you are, all right? Lena and I are going to come get you. Just stay there."

* * *

Stef was already outside and ready to go when Lena got to the house. They drove down to the beach and parked the car. Callie was sitting on the sand by the water, her eyes red and the tears still flowing. When she saw her foster mothers, she started trying to wipe her face, but really only succeeded in getting sand all over her cheeks.

"I'm really sorry," she told the moms, knowing that she'd scared them. "I just... I couldn't stay there."

"At least you had your phone with you," Stef replied as they knelt down next to her.

"Brandon showed me the picture," Lena gently told Callie. Her lip trembled, and she looked away. "Did Liam take it?"

"Yeah. Sometimes when we were together... He told me I looked like a model. He'd take pictures of me. At first, it was just normal stuff. Sitting in the backyard or whatever. But then he saw me getting dressed for bed one night... I let him stay and watch. It made me feel grown up; he told me that I looked beautiful."

"You are beautiful," Stef assured her.

Callie shook her head. "I was an idiot. After stuff like that, I should have seen the rape coming."

Lena took her hands. "Hey. There is absolutely nothing you could have done that justified him having sex with you without your permission. And there is absolutely nothing that gives him the right to hurt you now." Callie didn't answer.

"Did you know that he'd taken that picture?" Stef asked.

"I guess. I didn't really think about it at the time. Pictures were just something people did with friends... I was so stupid."

"You were young," Lena told her. "And he took advantage of that. It wasn't your fault."

Callie was silent for a long moment. "Can we go home?" she finally asked.

Stef wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "Of course, sweetheart. Let's go."

* * *

As soon as Mariana and Jesus got out of class for lunch, they went to find Brandon. "Have you seen this?" Jesus asked his brother as he started to pull out his phone.

Brandon stopped him. "Yeah, I have, and I don't need to see it again."

"Where's Callie?" Mariana asked when she realized Brandon was alone. The four elder Foster siblings had planned to eat together. "Is she okay?"

"I'm not sure. She ran out when she found out about the picture."

"Oh no!"

"Moms went looking for her," he assured her. "They'll find her."

"We should go help," Jesus suggested.

"Lena wants us to stay here. I guess so nobody else goes missing. We just gotta get through the rest of the day, okay?" The twins both nodded. "And whatever you do, don't say anything to Jude."

* * *

Jude was putting his backpack in his locker at lunchtime when he heard a few kids cruelly laughing nearby. He looked around and noticed a few of the boys that had been bullying him since earlier in the year. They were crowded together, looking at something.

"Wonder what's so funny?" Jude asked Connor, who was leaning against the lockers next to him.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Just ignore them, they're dumb."

But it was too late. The boys had already seen Jude. "Hey, Judith," one of them called, using their favorite nickname for him. "You didn't tell us that your sister was hot."

Jude frowned. "What?"

Another boy held up his cell phone with a picture on the screen. "Is she practicing for Playboy?" Jude's eyes widened as he realized that the barely-dressed girl in the photo was Callie. Connor was still standing beside him and also looked stunned. "You got any more of these?" the other kid continued to taunt.

Jude took the phone when he noticed that there was a caption posted with the picture. As he read through the message - including who it's author was - his expression turned even stormier. He suddenly hurled the phone at the wall; it landed on the floor in at least three pieces.

"Hey!" the device's owner cried, but Jude didn't care about him. Without a word to anyone, he turned and bolted down the hall and out the door of the school.

* * *

**TBC...**


	5. Chapter 5

Callie sighed as she, Lena, and Stef walked through the front door of the Foster house. It felt like her fortress at the moment, the only place where the rest of the world couldn't get to her.

"Callie, look at me," Stef told her as she took her hand. "Are you okay? Did you do anything to yourself that we need to be worried about right now?"

She shook her head, although it wasn't like she hadn't thought of it. "I didn't have a knife."

"We're proud of you for not trying to get one," Lena told her just as her cell phone started to ring. She frowned at the number on the caller ID. "That's the school; probably calling to let me know that you're missing class right now. Hello?" she answered the call. "Hi, Debbie. I know Callie's... What?... Oh, no." Stef and Callie looked over to her in concern. "No, I'll handle it. Thank you."

"What's wrong?" Stef asked her wife as she hung up.

"Now Jude's left school."

"What?!"

Lena sighed. As if they didn't already have enough to be worried about. "One of the teachers said he broke another student's phone and then ran out."

Callie felt her stomach drop and her eyes widened in fear. "Oh, God, he saw it."

"Callie - " Stef started.

"Jude saw the picture! He's got to be so disgusted with me!"

"Callie, your brother loves you," Lena reminded her. "If he's upset, you're going to explain what happened and he'll understand."

She was incredulous. "How is he supposed to understand this?! I never wanted him to know about any of this! He shouldn't have to know that people do things like this to each other!" It was her job to protect her brother. That had been her only purpose for existing since she was eight years old. She'd already failed too many times, and now she'd broken her promise to herself that she wouldn't fail again.

"Callie, calm down," Stef told her. "Just breathe, okay, love?"

She had started to pace back and forth, obviously in a panic. "What if something happens to him?" Callie continued to rant. "It'll be my fault!"

"Sweetheart, please, none of this is your fault," Lena pleaded. She was starting to get worried; Callie wasn't actually listening to them anymore, too upset to hear what they were saying.

Knowing that everyone at school had seen the picture was bad. Knowing her foster family had seen it was worse. Knowing Jude had seen it was unbearable. Would this nightmare with Liam ever end?! The fact that Callie knew hurting herself wasn't supposed to be an option anymore just made her feel even more anxious.

She wanted so badly to hold her knife in her hand, to have that small measure of control over her life as everything else spiraled out of control. As she crossed her arms across her stomach, she could feel her scars, tempting reminders of how she was used to dealing with pain and guilt. Almost unconsciously, Callie started digging her fingernails into her skin; it was the only thing she could think of that would make her feel better.

But even as she felt the first sting of pain, she knew it was wrong. The reprieve was so short-lived, and then she felt even worse than before. Hurting herself for screwing up was yet another mistake that deserved punishment. Why couldn't it all just stop?

Stef noticed what Callie was doing and reached to pull her hands away. "You can't do that, love. You've done nothing wrong; you don't need to punish yourself for anything." The moms could see every bit of progress that Callie had made was at risk of slipping away. They were still trying to figure out a new, safer outlet for her emotions and knew they needed to come up with something fast.

Suddenly, Lena had an idea. "Come here," she told her foster daughter before turning toward the kitchen. Stef kept a grip on Callie's hands as they followed her.

There was a folder in the corner with some paperwork from the trial, and Lena started searching through it for the right document. "Here," she said when she finally found it. She handed Callie a piece of paper with Liam's mug shot from his arrest. "You've told us that you hurt yourself when you feel guilty. But this isn't your guilt, sweetheart. Liam is the one that's done terrible things." She dug through the junk drawer in the counter until she found a red marker, which she also handed to Callie. "He deserves to bear the scars, not you."

She hesitated for a moment, but then she drew one red line down the side of Liam's face. After just staring at it for a long moment, she added another 'cut', like a split lip. She put another on his forehead and one more across his other cheek. She drew another, then another, and pretty soon she was just furiously coloring the whole page red. As more and more ink covered the paper, Callie finally started to relax.

Lena rubbed her back and kissed her forehead. "You're okay, sweetheart," she promised. "Good job."

Stef gave them a small, relieved smile. "I'm going to go see if I can find Jude," she quietly said.

Lena nodded. "Good luck."

Stef looked back at Callie. Their foster daughter seemed to be doing better now, but she knew things were precarious. "You, too," she told her wife.

* * *

Jude had no idea that his foster mothers knew he'd left school. He hadn't really even thought about whether he was going to worry them or get into trouble. At the moment, he was just a kid on a mission.

He used his money that was supposed to be for buying lunch in order to pay for bus fare from Anchor Beach to a house he'd once been very familiar with. He knocked on the door, then waited for someone to answer, and was very glad when that person ended up being Liam Olmstead.

"What do you want?" Liam asked with a glare when he saw his former foster brother standing on his front steps. But Jude wasn't intimidated; he'd come there with a purpose. Before Liam could react, Jude kicked him in the shin. Hard.

"Leave my sister alone!" he yelled before jumping backward just in time as Liam lunged for him. But the older man's now-injured leg gave out and he tripped down the steps.

"Ow! You fucking brat!" Liam yelled from his spot sprawled on the front walk.

"I mean it!" Jude continued. "You're worse than a bully. You're a horrible, evil person and you've done enough awful things to her already!"

"I'm just getting started," Liam spat as he sat up, holding his leg. "That little bitch ruined things for my parents and she tried to ruin me, too. But just like I told her, she is worthless and nobody gives a shit what she has to say. And now I'm going to return the favor. She'll see what ruined looks like!"

The front door opened again and Mr. and Mrs. Olmstead came outside. "Liam?" his father asked. "What happened?"

"He attacked me!" They looked at Jude in confusion, wondering how a tiny 12-year-old boy could get the best of an athletic 21-year-old man. It sounded ludicrous.

Jude wasn't going to wait around for them to figure it out; he'd made his point already. "You better stay away from my sister!" he gave a final warning before turning around and leaving. He could faintly hear Liam's father ask him,

"What have you done now?"

* * *

**TBC...**


	6. Chapter 6

Jude calmed down slightly as he walked back to the bus stop. He debated whether to return to school, or just go home. He finally decided on home; by the time he got back to Anchor Beach, classes would be over. As soon as he walked up to the house, though, he knew that he was busted. Both moms' cars were back in the driveway. When Jude came in the front door, Lena was standing on the staircase landing, her cell phone in her hand.

"Oh, thank God," she murmured when she saw Jude. "Are you okay?" He nodded as Stef and Callie came out of the kitchen. "Where have you been?"

"Sorry," Jude told them. "I didn't mean to worry you."

"You do not get to run off like that, mister, do you understand?" Stef asked.

He nodded again. "Yes. I'm really sorry."

"What happened?" Lena wondered.

Jude glanced at his sister. "There were some kids at school... they had a picture." Callie started to turn away and go back into the kitchen in shame, but Stef wrapped her arm around her. "It was real, wasn't it?" Jude asked. Some part of him had been hoping that Liam was just skilled at photoshop.

Callie nodded. "I'm sorry, Jude," she softly told him. "I'm so sorry you had to see that. I was stupid and I wish I could take it back."

"I don't care," he assured her. "I saw that Liam posted it, and the message he put with it. It made me SO mad! He shouldn't get to say things like that about you, not after what he did. I left school so I could go see him."

All three women stared at him in shock. "You did what?!" Stef finally asked.

"I wanted to tell Liam to leave Callie alone. He shouldn't get to hurt her anymore. I wish that he'd just go away!" Jude had decided not to mention the other threats Liam made; his sister had enough to worry about already. He could let the moms know later.

Callie stepped forward and crouched in front of Jude. "Thank you," she told him, and she meant it with all of her heart. "Thank you for wanting to do that. But I don't want you to go anywhere near Liam ever again, okay? He's dangerous. He could hurt you."

"I kicked him," he proudly told her.

"Jude!" Callie exclaimed.

"It was just in the leg. I woulda done it somewhere a little higher, but he's too tall." Stef covered her mouth in order to stifle a laugh.

Callie wrapped her arms around her brother. "I love you."

"I love you, too. I won't let anybody hurt you. You've always been my protector; now I can be yours."

"That was a... brave thing to do," Lena finally decided what word to use as a description. "But it was also very risky. Please don't do anything like that again, okay?"

Jude nodded. "Okay… Am I grounded?"

The moms exchanged a look. "There's a punishment coming for breaking that other boy's phone," Lena told him. "For everything else..."

"We'll call it extenuating circumstances," Stef added. "As long as you promise not to do it again."

Jude nodded. "Promise," he told them. And then his face suddenly split into a grin.

"What?" Lena asked.

"I just got in trouble with my moms for the first time!"

Stef and Lena laughed as Callie hugged her little brother again. "You're such a nut," she lovingly told him.

* * *

When school got out, Brandon met up with Jesus and Mariana at their lockers. "Lena texted me a little while ago," he told the twins. "They found Callie and they're at home now.

"Is she okay?" Jesus wondered.

"Probably not, all things considered."

"I want to see her," Mariana said. "Let's go get Jude."

"Actually, he's at home, too," Brandon added. The twins frowned. "I don't know what happened; I'm sure we'll hear about it later, though."

"Okay. Let's go," Jesus said.

% ^ % ^ % % ^ % ^ %

It was odd to think that just a few months ago, the three of them had been the only Foster children, but now they felt incomplete not having their other two siblings with them. Callie and Jude weren't the only kids that the family had fostered over the years, but it had never been like this with anyone else. They really did belong together.

When the trio came through the front door of the house, they were treated to the very welcome sight of Callie curled up on the living room couch with Jude. Mariana immediately ran over and hugged her foster sister. "I was scared you were going to run away again," she confessed.

Callie swallowed hard. She'd never meant to hurt her siblings like that. "Sorry."

Jesus shook his head. "You don't have to apologize. I would have left, too."

"I promised Stef and Lena that I wouldn't run away again," she informed them. "Because family doesn't quit on family."

Mariana smiled. "Good."

Stef appeared in the doorway from the kitchen. "I need some helpers with dinner," she told the kids.

"I will."

"Yeah, me, too," the twins both volunteered. Jude looked up at his sister, as though he wanted to join them but was afraid to leave her alone.

"Go on," Callie told him, giving him a nudge. "I'll be fine. Promise." So Jude followed Mariana and Jesus into the kitchen.

Brandon sat on the arm of the couch. "How are you?" he asked Callie.

"Pretty terrible," she honestly replied.

"Yeah, I can understand that."

"But I know I'd be a lot worse off if I didn't have all of you."

He smiled. "Come on, let's go play something. You can pick what song."

* * *

Upstairs, Callie got her guitar and followed Brandon into his room. They kept things simple to start with, playing the first song they'd learned together. "Sometimes I wish I knew how to actually make music," she softly said as they finished. "I can pick songs that have lyrics like how I feel, but it's not the same."

"You just have to think about what different feelings sound like," Brandon told her. "What does being happy sound like to you?"

She thought about it for a moment, then played a high-pitched chord. "Like that, I guess."

Brandon played a couple similar notes on the piano, and she mimicked him. "Okay. What about being sad?" The chords were lower with a slower cadence. "How about angry?" Callie played a couple discordant notes in quick succession. "That's all you have to do. Find whatever emotion you're trying to convey and string the notes together. And then it just kinda flows."

Callie smiled. "I'll have to try that sometime."

"Yeah. And there's one perk to my keyboard." He picked up a set of headphones and plugged them in. "Nobody else has to hear what I'm feeling if I don't want them to."

"Well, then I guess you'll have to give me piano lessons next."

"Sure... Should we go see how dinner's coming?"

Callie shook her head. "Not yet… I almost hurt myself again today," she admitted.

Brandon sat back down. "But you stopped yourself?" he attempted to reassure her.

"No. Your mom did. I knew I shouldn't do it, but..."

"Today was not a good day." Brandon was still trying to make her feel better.

Callie smirked. "I can't really make excuses like that."

"Not that I mind you talking to me, but I don't want you to feel like you've got to hide from everyone else. Have you thought about telling the twins and Jude?"

"I can't tell Jude," she instantly protested.

"Do you think he'll be upset?"

"I know he will. I don't want to scare him like that. I mean, it's bad enough that you and the moms have to be constantly worrying whether I'm going to fall apart. I can't put that on Jude, too."

"He's a tough kid, Callie."

"I know. He's had to be. Mostly because of me. "

She didn't say anything else, and Brandon decided to shelve the conversation. Maybe later, if Callie was feeling better, she'd reconsider. He wasn't going to force her into anything after a day like today. "Okay. If we're staying up here, do you want to play something else?"

Callie nodded. "Can we try 'Change' again?"

"Sure."

_if everything you think you know, makes your life unbearable_  
_would you change? would you change?_  
_if you'd broken every rule and vow, and hard times come to bring you down_  
_would you change? would you change?_

_how bad, how good does it need to get?_  
_how many losses, how much regret?_  
_what chain reaction, what cause and effect_  
_makes you turn around, makes you try to explain?_  
_makes you forgive and forget_  
_makes you change..._

* * *

**TBC...**

**A/N: The song in this chapter is "Change" by Tracy Chapman.**


	7. Chapter 7

After dinner, the kids decided to have a movie night in the living room. They made big bowls of popcorn and lounged on the different couches, chairs, or on the floor. By the time that their second movie was finishing, Brandon was surprised neither of the moms had come to tell them it was time for bed.

"It is really late," he commented as he got the Blu Ray out of the player. "I wonder if Moms fell asleep already."

"Somebody did," Mariana commented with a grin as she looked at her foster sister. Callie was lying on half of the couch with her legs hanging off the end, fast asleep. "Should we leave her down here or wake her up?"

Jesus noticed that her eyebrows were furrowed and she was moving around slightly. "Either that's as uncomfortable of a position as it looks, or she's having a nightmare."

Brandon stepped over Jude, who'd been lounging on the floor, and gently shook Callie's shoulder. "Hey, wake up," he told her. "The movie's over."

Before Callie's eyes had even opened, she'd jerked away from him, pulling herself into a ball. "Stay away from me!" she cried.

Brandon frowned. "Callie, it's just me."

"Stop! I don't want to! Leave me alone!"

"Go get the Moms," Mariana told Jude. He ran for the stairs.

"Callie, you're okay," Brandon tried to convince her, but she wasn't actually hearing them, lost in her own world of terror. She'd curled up on the couch with her eyes tightly closed and started fighting off their attempts to console her. She was still hysterical by the time Stef and Lena ran into the room.

"Callie, can you hear me?" Stef asked as she knelt beside her. "You're safe, baby girl. Nobody's going to hurt you."

Lena put a hand on Brandon's shoulder. "Take everyone else upstairs, please," she requested. He only hesitated for a moment. Jude was standing in the doorway with Jesus, looking terrified. Frankly, the twins didn't look much better. He knew that they didn't need to see this. It was one thing to know that Liam had raped Callie. It was another to watch her relive it.

"Come on, let's go," Brandon told the other kids, trying to sound more calm than he felt. "Moms will take care of her. Let's get ready for bed." It took a couple gentle pulls on Jude's arm to get him to move, but they all left.

Stef was still trying to get through to Callie. "You're okay, love," she told her again. "You're safe, at home, and there's no one here who's going to hurt you. Mama and I won't let them."

Tears were running down her face as she finally stopped fighting. "I saw Liam," she told them.

"It was a dream, sweetheart," Lena assured her as she sat on the coffee table. "It was just a dream; he can't hurt you anymore."

"I hadn't dreamed about him in so long. Now it keeps happening again! They're so real and I can't move and I can't fight him… I don't want to think about him anymore!"

"We know," Lena told her. "But I don't think you ever got to deal with what he did to you before. You pushed it away and pretended it hadn't happened. You couldn't tell anyone around you the truth. And now it's all come back to the surface and your brain is struggling to make sense of it."

"I wish I'd never started any of this!" Callie sobbed. There was a reason she'd spent years burying what had happened. Dealing with it was painful and messy and she hated feeling so weak.

Stef pulled her into her arms. "You admitted what Liam did to you for the best possible reason - to protect someone else. You are so strong, love, and I know it doesn't feel like it right now. But just remember that you're not fighting alone anymore."

Callie sniffled. "Why did this all happen to me? What did I do?"

Lena held her hands. "Nothing, sweetheart. You didn't do anything wrong except trust a person who didn't deserve to have you in his life."

"It's not fair that he gets away with it. Every single time, he gets away with it."

Stef held her a little tighter. "No, it's not fair at all."

* * *

While Lena and Callie talked a little more, Stef went to check on the rest of the kids. All four of them were in Jude and Jesus' room, quietly talking about what had happened. Both Mariana and Jude looked teary. "Is everybody alright?" Stef asked them.

"Where's Callie?" Jude wondered.

"She's downstairs with Lena."

"Is she going to be okay?" Mariana asked.

"Eventually. I know you all were probably scared by that, so I wanted to give you a chance to discuss it."

"She thought I was Liam, didn't she?" Brandon softly inquired.

"Probably. She had a very bad dream about what he did to her and that really frightened her."

"I've never seen anybody freak out like that before," Jesus admitted.

"Some of the things Callie has been through are things that we can't imagine. But every person has their own struggles in life." Stef knew that was certainly true for each of their children. Brandon had initially had nightmares and abandonment fears after his parents' messy divorce. Jesus had been deeply affected by bullying during the 2 years it took to find the right combination of drugs, therapy, and tutoring to allow him to function at school. Mariana was still struggling with the idea of her identity - which had almost led to fatal consequences. And now the latest additions to the family came with new and unique challenges. "Callie is going to be okay," she promised the kids, "Because we're all going to make sure of it, right?" They all nodded. "Okay, it's really late; everybody get ready for bed, please."

Brandon and Mariana followed her into the hall, heading to their own bedrooms. Steff grabbed her eldest's hand to stop him for a second. "Thank you," she told him after kissing his forehead. She knew it couldn't be easy for him to be the source of strength for his siblings when he was scared, too.

Brandon just nodded and continued to his room. Stef was about to go back downstairs when she noticed Jude peeking out his bedroom door.

"What is it, sweetie?"

"I wanted to say thanks," Jude told her. "For taking care of us, I mean. Callie never lets anybody see her scared, so I know she really feels safe here now."

Stef knelt down in front of him. "We are going to do everything we can to keep both of you safe and happy. You've got my word on that, okay?"

Jude nodded. "Liam said some stuff today when I was there... I don't think he's done trying to do bad things to Callie. I don't know what he's going to do, but... She can't get hurt by him anymore."

"I know."

"Can you stop him?"

"I will try my best... You are an excellent brother, Jude."

However, he shook his head. "I should have known," he sadly admitted.

Stef sighed. She understood why Callie hadn't told her brother what Liam had done to her, but there were still repercussions from that choice. "She wanted to protect you."

"But who was protecting her?" The answer had been 'nobody' for far too long.

"We are, now," Stef promised him. "You two will never be on your own again."

Jude gave her a fierce hug. "Thank you," he whispered.

"Get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, love." Stef watched him go back to his room, thinking over what both he and his sister had said that night. She stepped into her and Lena's bedroom and grabbed her cell phone.

"Hey, sorry it's so late," she said when someone answered on the other end. "There's something I need looked into..."

* * *

Mariana was already dressed for bed when Callie and Lena came upstairs. Lena gave her foster daughter one more hug before heading to her own bedroom. "Sleep well, sweetheart," she told the teen.

"Thanks."

Mariana eyed her sister carefully once Lena was gone. "Are you better now?" she asked.

Callie nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Just tired." She went over to her bed to get her pajamas, but stopped when she noticed something sitting on top of her pillow. "What's this?" she asked as she picked up the teddy bear.

"His name's Graham," Mariana told her. "Moms gave him to me when I first came here. I'd have nightmares, and sometimes I'd be too afraid to get out of bed and go get them. So they gave me Graham so I'd have someone to hug and make me feel better when I was scared."

Callie smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Where did the name come from?"

"He's the same color as graham crackers," Mariana told her with a laugh.

Callie giggled. "Okay, that makes sense."

"I loved them when I was little. I'd eat them all the time. If Moms forgot to put them in my lunch, I'd cry."

"That's really cute."

"Mmm, I don't think they thought so…" Both girls laughed.

* * *

The family had a pretty lazy Saturday, just spending time together. Lena made breakfast and afterwards, the kids started a video game tournament in the living room. Jesus had gotten a new racing game, and everyone took turns competing against each other for the coveted title of Fastest Driver in the House.

When the doorbell rang late in the afternoon, Brandon got up to answer it and was surprised to find his mother's boss on the porch. "Hi, Brandon," she told him with a smile. "Are your moms and Callie here?"

"Yeah. Hey, Moms!" he called up the stairs. "Captain Roberts is here!" Callie came out of the living room, having heard her name, too.

"Hey, Cap," Stef said as she and Lena came down to the first floor. "What's up?"

Captain Roberts gave them a little smile. "I just thought you would like to know that Liam Olmstead was just arrested."

Callie's eyes widened. "What?"

"The image of you that he posted online, that is classified as child pornography, and distributing it like he did is a felony. The SCU detectives were able to trace the post back to his computer, and once they had his hard drive in custody, they found more sexually suggestive pictures that he'd taken of other girls his parents had fostered."

"So what's going to happen to him?" Lena wondered.

"The case is good. When he's convicted - and the district attorney is expecting that's a 'when', not an 'if' - he'll go to jail and then have to be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life."

Callie was frozen in shock. "Oh, my God."

Stef squeezed her hand. "Thank you, Captain," she told her boss.

The other woman nodded with a smile. "You're welcome. Thank YOU for the tip last night - and for actually following my order to stay out of the investigation."

Stef nodded. "I wasn't going to mess this one up. It was too important."

Captain Roberts smiled. "I hope this makes your weekend a little better."

"It has," Lena told her. "Thank you so much."

As she let the woman out, the other kids came forward from where they'd been eavesdropping in the doorway to the living room. Mariana and Jude both ran to hug Callie.

"I can't believe it!" Jude exclaimed.

"Me, either," Callie replied.

"You finally got your justice," Mariana told her foster sister.

It wasn't how she'd imagined it, but... "Yeah, I guess I did."

* * *

**TBC...**

**A/N: I had to figure out a way to get rid of Liam. Hopefully they do on the show, too.**


	8. Chapter 8

By Sunday afternoon, Stef and Lena were starting to wonder if Callie's justice had come at too high of a price. "She's terrified of going back to school," Lena told her wife as they sat in the kitchen, talking about what they were going to do.

Stef looked out the window. All of the kids were in the backyard; Jude and Jesus were tree-climbing while Mariana did her nails and Brandon played his small keyboard. Callie was curled up in a lounge chair, her mind a million miles away. "Yeah, I know," Stef replied with a sigh.

"If it was any of the other kids, I wouldn't hesitate in telling them that they can't dodge their problems, but... the other kids are better equipped to handle their problems at the moment." Given everything that Callie was already dealing with, this latest challenge had been the last thing she needed.

"What's our alternative, Lena?" Stef wondered. "Send her to another school? She'd be totally isolated from the other kids; I don't think it would help matters."

"I'm not saying that," she protested, "But we need to do something."

"How's it coming with that therapy program you were looking at for her?"

"I'm trying to pull strings to get her into one of their outpatient programs. I think with family support, Callie can manage herself well enough that residential treatment is overkill. And I don't want her to feel like we're abandoning her to be someone else's problem."

"Agreed."

"But, in the meantime, we still have to figure out how to safely make life go on for her." Their conversation got put on pause as the back door opened and Brandon and Mariana came inside.

"Are there still cookies left?" Mariana asked her mothers.

"Um, yeah, I think so." Lena pointed to the container on the counter. She went to get them while Brandon grabbed a jug of lemonade out the fridge and some cups.

"Dinner's in a couple hours," Stef reminded them.

"We won't have too much," Mariana promised. She was about to go back outside, but Brandon hesitated.

"Hey, Mom? What do we do for Callie?"

She sighed. "Yeah, Mama and I were just discussing that."

"People at school are still talking about it," Mariana told them. "I got a few messages on Facebook about the picture."

"Me, too," Brandon quietly admitted.

"They're so immature," Mariana exasperatedly declared. "It's not like it was her fault a creep took advantage of her. But everybody's treating her like she's Hester Prynne."

Lena frowned. "Who?"

"From the Scarlet Letter. We're reading it in English. She had to wear a big red A all the time because she had an affair with somebody."

"We remember the book, sweetie, the name just didn't click," Stef told her.

"Oh, okay. Anyway, everybody was horrible to her, just for that. And that's how people are judging Callie: like she's got some mark of shame. Just for one stupid thing!"

"People can be ignorant," Lena agreed.

Jesus came in through the back door and almost collided with his sister. "Oh, there you are," he told her. "We were wondering what happened to the munchies."

"Coming, coming," she told him as she went outside. Brandon followed, and made sure he poured a glass of lemonade for Callie before anyone else.

She forced a smile when he sat it down on the table next to her. "Thanks," she whispered.

"No problem." As Brandon went back over to his keyboard, he thought some more about the conversation they'd had inside. And then he got a really good idea.

* * *

The next day at school, Lena was on her way from her office to the faculty lounge for lunch when she heard a bit of commotion down the hall. As she went over to investigate, she found that Brandon, Mariana, Jesus, and Jude were standing by a table in a corner, handing out papers and a small object to each of the kids that came by.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?" she asked them.

Brandon wordlessly handed her one of the papers. At the top, in big letters, were the words 'FACTS ABOUT SEXUAL ABUSE AND VIOLENCE.' The sheet was full of statistics on abuse with teenagers, how often abuse doesn't get reported, and the after effects. They'd also included websites and phone numbers for getting help.

"Do you want one?" Jude asked his foster mother, offering her a teal awareness ribbon. Each of the Foster kids were wearing one and they had been giving them out to the students that passed by. Lena could see a few other kids in the hall already had the ribbons pinned to their shirts.

"Definitely," she replied. "This is amazing, you guys." Behind the table, they'd taped posters to the wall with sayings like 'No means No', 'Nobody Asks For It', and '40%+ of sexual assault victims are under 18'. "Really amazing."

"We wanted people to understand," Mariana explained. "We're trying to get rid of all the wrong assumptions out there."

"And who knows," Jesus added, "Maybe more people will start to speak up."

"Instead of a mark of shame," Brandon told her, "We made a mark of support."

* * *

Lena decided that eating lunch could wait; she instead went back to her office to make a phone call.

"Hey, babe," Stef answered her cell phone, having seen Lena's name on the caller ID. Stef had stayed home from work for the day to be with Callie. Their foster daughter was currently in the dining room, trying to catch up on all of her missed homework.

"Hey. I think you should bring Callie over to the school," Lena told her.

Stef frowned. "What?"

"I know we agreed last night that she could have a day or two off, but... I really think you should bring her over here, even if it's just for a little while."

"Why?"

"Because there's something that she ought to see."

* * *

The anxiety level in the car during the drive over to Anchor Beach was high. Stef caught Callie nervously bouncing her leg or drumming her fingers against the door multiple times.

"You don't have to stay," she reassured her foster daughter for at least the third time. "We'll just see what Lena found and then take it from there, okay?" Callie nodded.

By the time they came inside, lunch was over, so there were far less students out in the halls. Stef saw her wife, eldest son, and younger daughter standing by the door to the front office. "What's going on?" she asked Lena.

But she just looked to Brandon and Mariana; they had been the masterminds. Mariana took Callie's hand and led her down to the hall to their info table. Brandon followed and they watched as she read each of the posters.

"I don't understand," Callie finally said.

Mariana gave her one of the ribbons. "This is a symbol that you're stronger than anyone else in this place," she told her sister. "And a symbol that we're with you, no matter what."

"We handed out over a hundred of them today," Brandon added. "And saw a lot of people wearing them. You've got nothing to be ashamed of, not anymore."

Callie looked at everything they'd done again, a small smile slowly crossing her face. "Thank you," she told her siblings. Callie looked back at Stef and Lena for a moment, then took a deep breath. "You feel like going to Chemistry?" she asked Brandon.

He grinned. "Normally, no. But if you're going to go... sure."

* * *

**One chapter left...**


	9. Epilogue

Callie managed to get through the rest of the school day. She got several stares and noticed a few whispered conversations, but making it through the day made her feel stronger.

As she started to leave her last period, Talya grabbed her arm. "You have a minute?" the redhead asked.

"Um, sure." They waited as the last few students had left the room. "What's up?"

"This is going to sound stupid, but… I was wondering what happened to you? Did the guy that took that picture do something?"

Callie bit her lip. "Yeah… He raped me."

"Did he go to jail?"

"Not for that. With my past, the judge threw out the case." Talya looked down, and Callie realized where this conversation was going. "What happened to you?" she asked. "Things got worse at that party, didn't they?"

She nodded. "This guy pulled me into one of the bedrooms… I'd never seen him before. He started…" She couldn't finish that sentence. "He didn't lock the door, though, and someone else came in. The guy just got up and left." She gave a humorless laugh. "The only thing that saved me was some other kids looking for a makeout spot. Pretty stupid, right?"

"It wasn't your fault."

"I was wasted," Talya pointed out. "And taking my clothes off."

"That doesn't matter. If you said no, then you said no. He had no right to go any further."

"I wish I'd left with you and Mariana," she admitted.

Callie sighed. "Yeah. I wish I'd tried harder to get you to come… Have you told your parents or anyone?"

Talya shook her head. "They don't know where I was that night. No point in getting grounded on top of everything else."

"What about Brandon?"

"No. He already knows too much about what a slut I was that night."

"He's not going to be mad. He's just going to be worried about you. You need someone to talk to."

"I'm talking to you," Talya pointed out. "I realized that you were right before, when you said you understood what I'd been through. Even the parts that you didn't know anything about at the time." She gave a self-deprecating smile. "And I'm not really sure why you're actually talking to me, after everything. But you've always been nicer to me than I deserved."

"Things were... complicated," was the most diplomatic response that Callie could come up with. "For everybody."

"Still. Thanks."

Callie reached into her book bag and pulled out one of the fact sheets that her siblings had made. "Here," she told Talya as she gave it to her. "I started looking at some of the websites on this today. There are a lot of resources out there, stuff I didn't know about before. The statistics really pissed me off. 1 in 6 women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. And less than 50 percent report it. I was part of that half for way too long. Even if the court didn't believe me, keeping my secret just ate away at me every day."

"So you really think I should tell Brandon?" Talya wondered.

She nodded. "You don't have to hide. Just remember that you're not the one who did something wrong."

"Okay, I'll think about it."

After a moment of thought, Callie took off her teal ribbon and gave that to Talya, too. "This is a reminder that there are other people on your side," she explained. "Nobody who's been through what we have deserves to be alone."

% ^ % ^ % % ^ % ^ %

Brandon was waiting for Callie out in the hallway. Just when he was starting to worry whether she'd skipped out on school again, she finally came out the classroom door. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm good."

Talya also walked out of the room, and Brandon frowned a bit in confusion and surprise. Since when were they friends? "Hey," he told his girlfriend.

"Hi. I've got to get home, but I'll call you later."

He shrugged. "All right."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Callie," Talya told the other girl as she walked away.

"What was that about?" Brandon asked his foster sister.

Callie knew it wasn't her place to spill Talya's secret. "Nothing. Just homework stuff."

They went outside to meet up with Mariana, Jesus, and Jude to walk home. The other two boys were very surprised but happy to see that Callie was at school.

"Callie!" Jude cried as he ran over to her and gave her a hug. "I thought you were staying home?"

"I was. But Lena called Stef about what you guys had done. Thank you, all of you."

"No problem," Jesus told her.

"Where'd your ribbon go?" Mariana wondered as she noticed that it was missing from her sister's shirt.

"Someone else needed it more."

* * *

During the walk home, Jesus and Jude started discussing a new video game they were anxiously awaiting the release of, and Mariana put on her iPod headphones. That left the two oldest siblings with a chance to talk. Callie had promised Talya that she wouldn't spill her secret, but she had her own thoughts to discuss.

"I looked at some of the sites you found while I was in study hall," Callie told Brandon. "There's a lot of information I'd never thought about before. And there's message boards and blogs; it's cool to know I could have a support group with people who are scattered all over the country."

He smiled. "The magic of the internet."

"Yeah… Before I came here, it didn't seem like there were any advantages to admitting what had happened to me. I couldn't think of any good outcomes. But now, it's getting harder to see the advantages of keeping quiet. I never thought just talking actually helped anything, but now I realize that I was so isolated, so afraid. And that just gave him even more power over me. I'm tired of it."

"He's already taken enough," Brandon agreed.

They kept walking in silence for a few minutes. "I've been thinking about what I want to study in college," Callie finally spoke up. "I think I want to be a counselor."

Brandon smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean… if I could help people who have been through what I have, maybe I could keep them from feeling alone and insignificant. I could try, at least."

"I think that sounds like a really good plan. I think the Moms will love it, too."

She smiled. "I guess if I'm going to college, I gotta start caring about my grades, huh?"

He laughed. "Yeah, that's something they usually check. At least we can help each other with SAT prep."

Callie rolled her eyes. "Ugh, I gotta take those, too?"

* * *

**Fin.**

**A/N: As always, thank you for your feedback. I've been working on at least one more story to follow this one, so this is really just "The End for Now." The next story is more focused on Jude and Stef, but I'm open to suggestions if there are specific things people would like to see happen in the future.**

**A/N 2: The statistics used in this story about sexual violence came from the website for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network).**


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